Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 153946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Was he saying what I thought he was?
Our panting breaths mingled and our eyes met, each of us waiting for the other to pull away. To look away. To stop whatever it was that was happening between us, or take that last step and finally give in.
My gaze lowered to his lips and he groaned softly. He was going to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted all of him right now.
As long as we were being honest.
The barking inside the house came on suddenly, pitched high enough to startle us both. Wade dropped his hands and I turned my head in time to see a lantern bobbing through the back gate, followed by a familiar ginger beard. “Howdy, campers.”
“Lucy?”
He took in the two of us for a long, speaking moment before glancing over his shoulder at the house. “There’s a tree on your roof, little sister. When I couldn’t get either one of you on the phone, I decided to add you to my rounds. Rick’s on Bernie and Pheebs, by the way.”
Wade, who’d fixed my shirt and put a discreet distance between us faster than my scrambled brain could have, ran a hand through his wet hair, looking relieved. “They’re okay?”
“Lost power, like everybody else in the neighborhood. But that house generator you decided on is really paying off. Good call.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, hoping I sounded more pleasantly surprised than sexually frustrated.
Lucy smirked as if he knew exactly what we’d been up to. “Straight to business, I see. Okay then. Ho ho ho, who wants a few cans of gas, a generator and a window unit from Santa?”
I immediately forgave the interruption and raised my hand, because I had priorities and icy-cold air was very near the top. “I do.”
Lucy chuckled and gave us one more interested glance drenched in innuendo, then headed back to what I assumed was his sleigh full of toys.
“He has hurricane rounds?” I asked, slightly mystified.
Wade was half a pool away from me now, avoiding eye contact and looking tense. “What? Uh…yeah. He was part of a city emergency unit when he lived in Louisiana. Now he freelances around his tech support job. His garage is full of radios, batteries and air conditioning units ready to go at a moment’s notice. If someone’s in danger, Rick will usually come along, but other than that, Lucy says he can handle ‘his people’ himself.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re staying here then.”
He stopped halfway up the stairs and looked back over his shoulder to stare at me. “He came to check on you, Gus. He would have, whether I was here or not.”
If you say so.
When I stepped out of the pool and he tossed me a towel, his expression was definitely aggravated. There was no time to ask him why because Lucy was striding by again.
“Radioed Rick and gave him the skinny about that fat tree. He’ll be over to see us in the morning.”
To see us?
I moved to follow up, but Wade stopped me before I took two steps. “We need to talk about that,” he said, tipping his head at the pool.
“Do we though?” I went for sophisticated and casual but my heart was pounding painfully. “I’d rather discuss why Lucy has a sleeping bag over his shoulder, and why he’s taking it and the generator to the apartment instead of my house.”
Wade studied my lips until I licked them nervously. “Our conversation isn’t over.”
I hoped not, but I wasn’t going to hold him to it. He might have implied he’d kept his distance because he wanted me, but in the light of day and outside of the honesty pool, he’d probably remember all the reasons he’d thought it was a good idea in the first place.
And I’d be right back where I started. Wanting someone I couldn’t have.
11
AUGUST
Weirdest slumber party ever.
Picture three large dogs and three not-insubstantial humans huddled in an itty-bitty apartment, playing poker while a hurricane raged outside. (To clarify, the humans played poker; the dogs were thankfully exhausted from all the excitement and their residual gummy high.)
Lucy insisted on setting up camp there because it was easier to cool a smaller space, especially one with no holes in the roof. So we sat on the living room floor all evening, playing cards around the bulky rattan table, eating chips and trail mix, and enjoying the cool air from the AC unit while the little generator-on-wheels hummed outside, protected from the wind and rain by its own special tent.
It should have been difficult to see Wade’s things scattered around my mother’s apartment. It should have been uncomfortable to sit beside him all night, after everything we’d said and done in the pool.
The reason it wasn’t? My new hero, Lucy Babineaux, who never stopped talking long enough for me to get lost in my own head.